Eastern Caribbean Disney Cruise: Gianelo/Coulter Family Reunion Photo Book

Mother's Day Flowers

Jenny's Cow

My niece Jenny made John a ceramic cow. Isn't it cute?

I like it above my stove, where John left it.

A Condensed Reaction to the Kids and Technology Problem

I think there is a lot to be gained in this digital age. I feel I can't afford to ban video games and TV from my children's lives. But there absolutely has to be a balance.

Regulating what kinds of games and shows are in my home is a big part. But as long as there is more good than bad coming from it, I feel pretty strongly about being tolerant.

As far as time spent on electronics versus what I consider to be real play and interaction, I feel confident that as long as I'm honestly passionate about non-technology based activities, a balance will come. ie It's more important to me that my kids learn to love the outdoors than that they aren't addicted to a tablet, if that makes sense. I try to focus more on what I do want for my kids than what I don't want.

Most Popular Primary Songs

I'm currently the Primary Chorister for our ward. This Sunday I felt like the kids needed a break from all the hard work I've put them through to learn and practice new songs. I figured it would be easy to find a list of the top ten most popular Primary songs. Nope. I found lots of lists of opinions on the best, but I felt like they included songs that aren't sung often and were missing key favorites.

I LOVE Primary music and have sung the songs from the book all my life. That means I probably know more Primary songs (and LDS Hymns, for that matter) than most people. It also means that my perception of songs that everyone should know is skewed. I keep going up there with a song I feel like all the kids will know by heart and even the teachers look at me like I'm crazy.

Luckily for me, John hated Primary when he was in it, especially the music. That means that the only songs he knows are the most popular. We went through and he picked out all the songs he knows and we weeded down to the top ten. I leaned more toward the fun songs than the reverent ones, which I think is fair since kids really catch on to fun ones even if they don't sing them as often.

John told me to post it since I had such a hard time finding it. This isn't an opinion of our favorite songs, this is our perception of what the most popular songs are.

In no particular order:

I Am a Child of God 

A Child's Prayer

I Love to See the Temple 

Follow the Prophet

Book of Mormon Stories 

Nephi's Courage 

Love One Another

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

Families Can Be Together Forever

Wise Man and the Foolish Man

I didn't include non-gospel-centered songs, especially since a lot of them are well known outside of Mormon culture. But a list like this wouldn't be complete without:

Popcorn Popping

Mushroom

Once upon a time when I was pregnant with Oscar, Johnny bought a mushroom light and duct taped it to our toilet.

Because when you have to go in the middle of the night, your choices are: possibly fall in the toilet, possibly pee on the lid, or burn your eyes with bright fluorescents.
Thanks, dear.

Chat Name

John makes me laugh.

He's programming a chat application that he and I talked about inventing a few years ago. This is an early result: